


Down Memory Lane

by sirsoundwaveIV



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Let's Go! Pikachu & Let's Go! Eievui | Pokemon: Let's Go Pikachu! & Let's Go Eevee!, Pocket Monsters: Sun & Moon | Pokemon Sun & Moon Versions
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-14
Updated: 2019-03-24
Packaged: 2019-10-10 09:22:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17423192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sirsoundwaveIV/pseuds/sirsoundwaveIV





	1. Chapter 1

They buried him on a rainy day in Melemele.

The funeral came and went in a blur, the clouds unrelenting and the raindrops the only thing cracking the silence. A few words here and there, a lot more tears and sobs, and like that it was done.

Lillie stood alone by the grave. Flowers nearly choked out the head stone. 

She held her hands at the waistline of her old white dress and looked at the dates etched. A few days short of his nineteenth birthday.

Lillie didn’t know if it was normal to not cry; she had plenty of times as a child when reprimanded and when she scraped her knee and the one (and only) time Gladion had called her a bad word, but now?

She snapped out of her thoughts at the sound of faint splashing, feet through the soaked terrain.

Kukui stood there, having dropped the black suit for his usual get up; a lab coat without the shirt, his sandals soaked, his hat missing. 

Lillie couldn’t figure out what else was off until she noticed the missing smile.

He quickly forced one. “Alola,” he said, his upbeat tone just as faked.

The facade faded when Lillie shook her head. The two stood in silence now by the grave, and Lillie wondered if Kukui was as confused as she was why she was still here.

“How’s Burnet doing?” Lillie asked quietly.

Kukui shook his head. “Aile and Nebby are with her, but…” He exhaled sharply. “Yeah.” He uncrossed his arms and scratched his cheek. “Not good.”

Lillie knew, but the dumb question was much preferable to the unrelenting sound of rain and dreariness and the thunder on the horizon and-

“Your mom?”

Lillie tensed up and bit her lip. 

“Still in her coma,” she muttered quietly enough it was a wonder the rain didn’t drown it out. “Wicke thinks the Dream Mist is working, but…”

Lillie squeezed her eyes shut. Kukui wrapped an arm around her, a far cry from his usual bear hugs, and she wondered if it was okay to cry.

-

The stark white of her mother’s room sharply with the storm rumbling outside, yet couldn’t dispel the bleakness of it all.

Nebby leaned on the wall, bulky armored clawed arms crossed. Lillie felt his rainbow eyes glancing between him and mother, hooked up to several machines and tubes. Some of them fed her nutrients at specified times, enough to keep her alive. Others fed her Dream Mist in what felt like a futile effort to repair her mind ravaged by psychics and poisons alike.

Lillie felt Nebby turning his head to glare at Lusamine and she wished he’d let out a “pew!” for old time’s sake. Instead his transformation had just made him more aware of what Lusamine had tried to do with him. She was so confident it wouldn’t kill him, but Nebby wouldn’t have any of it. 

It was a miracle he helped Lillie portal over to Aether Paradise, even. Lillie couldn’t blame him, and yet…

The door opened, and both Nebby and Lillie turned to face Wicke. 

Lillie immediately noticed the bags under her eyes, her brunette hair a mess and her white coat and pink sweatshirt combo showing some stains and wear and tear.

“Any updates?” Lillie asked.

Wicke shook her head. “She’s been the same as she has been for the past week.” 

Another week passed, and nothing changed. Lillie could feel normalcy set in, a new normal; wake up, check on mom, do a few chores around the Foundation, check on mother…

It felt empty.

Her phone lit up one night; Aile. She had been busy with Kukui getting the Alola Pokemon League set up that Lillie found herself surprised Aile found the time.

Bleary eyes scanned her smartphone screen, lighting up her room and all her plushies laid out in a neat order on her pristine pink bed.

Aile wanted to have coffee tomorrow. Coffee, just catching up, all of that.

Lillie immediately knew it was more.

-

Aile had longer brunette hair peppered with gray like an 80-year-old, but a smile and expressions of an eight-year-old. Lillie supposed it was in part why Nanu asked Aile to look after her and the others; she acted more Lillie’s age than Lillie did.

Still in the months they had known each other now, Lillie could pick up when the smile was hiding something. The sort of formalwear would’ve caught Lillie off guard if she had thought Aile wore the brown coat and dress pants willingly.

They sat in a small diner next to Hau’s favorite Malasada joint on Melemele. A few kids asked for Aile’s autograph, but eventually the other diners left them well enough alone. The smell of breakfast and bacon tempted Lillie, and she was grateful for the small bagel and apple she had before meeting here.

Aile stirred her sugar and cream with coffee.

“So how’s your mom?” Aile asked in that awkward tone that suggested she had no better way to start the conversation.

“Stable,” Lillie replied, coolly enough to not grab attention from strangers but with enough sharpness to tell Aile everything she really needed to know.

“Ah.” Aile’s spoon clinked against the edges of her plain gray mug as she searched for conversation. They had long ago agreed to disagree on the topic of mother.

Finally, Aile dropped the spoon with a louder than expected clink.

“So I guess I’m just going to get down to business here.” Aile exhaled. “I think you should leave Alola.”

Lillie blinked, glanced around, then spoke in a surprised whisper. “What?”

“I mean.” Aile crossed her arms. “Temporary, of course. A journey, you could say.”

“A… journey,” Lillie repeated to confirm.

Aile nodded. “I don’t think it’s good for you to stay here. For the time being.” She took Lillie’s silence as a cue to continue. “With your mom in her coma, with…” Aile choked on her next words, waving her left hand around aimlessly. “Sun.”

Lillie played with the strings of her hooded sweatshirt, white and baby blue and providing a helpful distraction.

“What have you been doing since the funeral, exactly?” Aile finally found the words to continue.

“Checking on mother,” Lillie immediately said, nearly blurted out. “Doing chores around Aether…” She trailed off. 

“Nothing much of note?”

Lillie shook her head.

Aile sighed and leaned in, pushing her almost forgotten coffee away. “Look, I appreciate you wanting to be around her, but at this point it’s up to the doctors and the mist if she ever snaps back to reality.”

Lillie didn’t know Aile could speak so quietly. She sat back upright and sighed, drumming her fingers on the table.

“Sticking around isn’t going to help you at all.”

Lillie looked down at her lap.

“It’s not going to bring Lusamine back, it’s not going to bring back the old days, when we were first starting out and…” Aile shook her head. “It’s not that simple anymore.”

“Simple is an odd term for World Police business,” Lillie said, hands folded in her lap. 

“Usually, yeah,” Aile remarked. She chuckled. “Still, protecting you and the other kids from whatever Lusa- Aether had in mind for Nebby and…” 

Lillie could see the lightbulb going off.

“Look, Nebby has a lot to figure out too. They have to figure out the whole protector of Alola, Necrozma… whatever deal themselves.” Aile paused to laugh. “Big promotion for our dumb space cloud child.”

Lillie found herself giggling a bit, sharing a bitter nostalgic chuckle with Aile.

“But… he must figure out where he _really_ stands in all of this, and I think you do too.” 

Lillie looked down at her skirt, remembered when she first picked out her own clothes; the hooded sweatshirt, the cute light blue skirt, the changed hair, how it all appealed to her. 

It represented her independence. Yet, as the days rolled on and tragedies struck, she found herself at a loss.

What should she do with it?

“Look.” Aile’s firm but reassuring tone brought Lillie to the present. “Talk to Kukui.”

Lillie tilted her head. “How come?”

“Because he had to make the same choice you do now.”

-

When Lillie brought up meeting Kukui, Wicke recommended she stay the night at his place. Whether or not Wicke was in on Aile’s plan or not was up for interpretation.

Maybe Wicke just saw the same things in Lillie that Aile did. Weird, given Wicke acted like an adult, but plausible.

The cool beachside air and the sea of stars drowning the inky black above accompanied her as she trudged through the sands to Kukui’s doorstep. The faint salty smell of the sea teased her nose, and she pondered how strong it would be to an outsider.

She knocked, much firmer and louder than the first time. After she had dropped face first down on the beach months ago, was alone and scared and suddenly without everything she had known for the first time ever, her knocks had been so light it was a wonder Kukui even heard them.

It took him five minutes to figure out Lillie was at his door the first time; it took him mere seconds now.

He swung the door open and his smile illuminated the night.

“Lillie! Glad you could stop on by!”

Lillie wanted to apologize for being uninvited, but Kukui never minded. That, and Aile likely had told him about the proposal. The two were close enough that their wives might’ve been suspicious had Aile possessed any sort of interest in men.

Lillie smiled and accepted the warmth of his incoming bear hug before being invited in. His house still had the patches on the rooftop, the burn marks on the wooden floor, the small living room area surprisingly intact green rug and all, the towering fish tank with Luvdisc and Corsola that sat on the basement floor and touched the roof.

And her room, sitting on top of a splintery ladder by the TV, perfectly intact.

Kukui slapped the spot next to him on the living room couch, the black fabric showing signs of a Rockruff chewing on the edges. 

Lillie accepted the wordless invitation.

“I kept your room ready in case you needed a Rest!” Kukui said with a grin. “What’s up?”

“Um,” Lillie said. She remembered how Aile struggled to broach this topic at the diner earlier. “Well, Aile told me I should talk to you?”

“Oh?” Kukui feigned surprise. “How come?”

“She…” Lillie exhaled, looked down at her lap and folded her hands. “Told me I should go on a journey.” Her voice got a little quieter. “Away from home.”

Kukui’s smile narrowed from over-enthusiasm to somewhere between nostalgic and melancholy

“Kanto?”

Lillie turned up. “She didn’t mention-“

“She has serious connections there, so yeah. Kanto.” Kukui chuckled and glanced up at the squeaking ceiling fan above, holes in the wooden blades from when he tried training a Pikipek. “I really should fix that thing,” he said, almost murmuring. His voice raised again towards Lillie. “Besides, I’ve got a few myself.”

“I remember you talking about it,” Lillie said. The creaking fan broke the silence for a few moments.

“Not all of it,” Kukui said, his grin a little forced. “I wanted to see what a real Pokemon League was like, sure, but…” He exhaled and stared at his reflection in the TV. “Only half of it.”

Kukui’s expression said it all.

“See, Mom had been struggling for a while before that with illnesses,” he said, taking off his glasses and cleaning them with the corner of his lab coat. “Rough, you know? Being a single mom. Hala helped best he could, so did everyone else, but… Well, she passed. Week or so before I decided to go.”

Lillie rarely spoke barring occasional bursts of energy, and she didn’t find a reason to change that now.

“I was helpin' Hala and the villagers with errands and such, but we all knew I couldn’t do it forever.” Kukui slipped his glasses on. “Me and ol’ Rocky, drill running back and forth between the villages and big city. Didn’t really know what else to do. Then Hala got a letter from Kanto’s Pokemon League; they were looking for foreigners to take up their challenge for…” Kukui scratched his nose. “Some reason or another. Guess I have a bit of Amnesia.”

Lillie chuckled for a moment, catching herself a moment too late.

“I knew I’d get you to laugh at _one_ of those,” Kukui teased. 

“You got lucky,” Lillie protested, cheeks red.

“That Lucky Chant came in handy.” 

Lillie groaned.

“And in a sense, I guess I had some sorta luck in going to Kanto. Met Burnet there, learned so much more about pokemon and the league and everything and… yeah. Got a real Flash Fire going in my belly, yanno? Found my sweetheart and found my passion in life, getting a league of Alola’s own and doing research on these amazing critters!”

“I see,” Lillie said. Aile had mentioned similar with meeting her own wife.

“Look,” Kukui said, hand dangling between his face and Lillie. “I’m not expecting you to do or find anything even that big. I just know that you deserve a little more than just wandering around here trying to find your own passion in life when… things aren’t so great.”

Lillie felt that knot in her stomach.

“I know Aile went over that with you already but… yeah.” He nodded. “Go to Kanto, find your dreams. Your mom’s in good hands here.”

Lillie fidgeted.

“And hey,” Kukui said, his over the top grin returning. “It’s not like you’re going away forever. You can come back here after the journey, stay in Kanto, who knows?” He stretched his arms out there. “It’s a big world out there, and you deserve to see a lot more of it.”

Lillie nodded and breathed out a little, to settle herself, to help her focus on her decision. After Kukui said goodnight and the lights went out, Lillie grabbed her smartphone once again, a small brick with a cute purple case, yellow and light blue added on and reminding her of times past.

She bought her ticket to Kanto, even as her old cozy bed tried to lure her back to a time gone by.

-

A few days passed. Goodbyes were said, and hugs were given out. A virtual one in Gladion’s case; his training on Ula’Ula with Nanu kept him away.

People bustled around her bench, not paying her much mind. A refreshing change of pace; she couldn’t remember the last time she was alone and ignored. If it weren’t mother being mother, it was Aile demanding she always have someone with her, lest an Aether worker find her at an inopportune time.

Light shimmered down from the blue skies above the glass ceiling of the Melemele Harbor, highlighting a giant animatronic T-rex. A plaque stood on a black plastic stand by its feet, confirming its authenticity as a prop used in Jurassic Park, a film 65 million years in the making. These creatures, supposedly, predated even Aerodactyl and the other fossilized pokemon that could be brought back to life. 

It was shot on the islands so long ago, yet still held such a fond place in hearts everywhere. The sequels never managed to recapture that nostalgia, Lillie intoned. She remembered how terrified she was when she viewed it with her family. Gladion would’ve made fun of her for it, but they instead spent the next few days calling Faba Nedry.

He didn’t like it much.

She remembered mother had to be convinced to let them watch the show; really, convinced to experience much of anything outside of their artificial island. It hadn’t always been that way, not before Father vanished without a trace.

Lillie looked down at her luggage in some effort to distract herself; her white duffel, beat up and worn, contrasted with her black suitcase, brand new. She glanced at the ticket in her hands, for the ferry that would whisk her away to Kanto in 15 minutes. 

She swallowed and glanced at the piece of plastic overlapping it; a card. A trainer card, with all the paperwork and such confirming her Kanto trainer registration in her bag.

She remembered how happy Sun was to show anyone his trainer card. Her hand felt the zipper of the duffel, pulled it open gently to reveal an envelope; a plain white one with Lillie written in his handwriting.

Lillie knew she was never very courageous. The sound of her bag being zipped shut was drowned out by an announcement over the loudspeaker; her boat was here.

“This is happening,” she murmured. Her stomach knotted, nerves rumbling with anticipation. She let go of a deep breath.

She grabbed her bags and walked to the unknown.


	2. Chapter 2

It occurred to Lillie at some point in her days on the boat that she had traveled further from home on the first day than she ever had in Alola itself.

She still didn’t quite know what to think about it, even as she attempted to and failed miserably to socialize with anyone at all; the conversations never quite got past pleasantries, and after two days of awkward greetings Lillie elected to mostly leave her room for the food.

There were activities outside on the deck, a pool and other such games, to be sure. But Lillie couldn’t shake the feeling this was just a more mobile version of the artificial island she had grown up on.

Still, even with passing the days reading, sleeping, and eating, she had control and independence for the first time she could recall.

The captain announced their arrival in Pallet Town first; a smaller stop, to be sure. Lillie flashed back to the stops in Olivine City- a pretty harbor in Johto- and Cianwood before that, an island in the middle of nowhere.

Lillie’s surprise at reading that there was a gym in Cianwood was muted by the fact Alola had trials nestled deep within tall snowy mountains and sprawling cavern and cave systems. Fair enough.

It didn’t take long for Lillie to make her way off the boat. A small trickle of people stepped off from the red carpet onto the snugly connected metal ramp around her. She blinked and rubbed her eyes, staring out into the morning fog of sleepy Pallet Town.

Lillie guessed she could see the route sprawling out beyond the small town from her position on the ramp as she descended. She felt a brisk chill wind of autumn accost her, and she grabbed her blue sweatshirt tighter.

Mother would’ve never allowed her to wear a hoodie, but she had stolen Aile’s enough during the cooler Alolan nights that Aile decided to buy her a few, as well as other warmer clothes, suited for the Kanto autumn and winter.

Aile let Lillie pick the designs and such, of course. Lillie didn’t even need to insist, though she would’ve if needed. Lillie had only met Aile’s wife a few times, but Bianca made fun of Aile for being completely hopeless dressing herself, so.

Autumn leaves crunched underfoot as Lillie took her first steps onto the Kanto mainline, and if it was sleepy at a distance Lillie felt like it was in a coma as she stood in it. The rest of the “crowd” quickly dispersed around her, mostly towards the lone tiny motel in the town’s limits, and Lillie turned as the ship’s horn announced its departure. 

She followed the gravel road towards the tiny motel after a quick glance at her black and silver smart watch; she easily had four hours to kill before meeting Professor Oak, and even a stiff motel bed sounded lovely as long as it didn’t sway.

-

Lillie would’ve worn a dress to meet Professor Oak for the first time, but Aile had imposed on her that it was a terrible idea. He, much like Aile, was never much for fancy suits apparently.

She stood outside of the lab, a few Pidgeys chirping on the rooftop. She could faintly smell hay from the nearby barn, a surefire sign that one was nowhere near a large town. The closest two towns were Viridian and Pewter City, and even they paled in comparison to the massive cities in Kanto’s interior according to the guides. 

The lab was built more like a house; plain white with wooden paneling and visible chocolate brown planks on the outside of it. Mother would’ve described it as quaint, which usually meant she thought it should’ve been replaced ages ago.

Lillie shoved these thoughts aside and knocked. The walls muffled some sort of quick conversation, and the door swung open to reveal an older man. He had short tan hair and wore a labcoat that he absolutely possessed for at least two decades or more, with a plain red polo shirt and khakis underneath.

She didn’t know what she expected, but from what little Aile and Kukui had told her about the professor it seemed fitting for the old man.

“Ah! Lillie!” He said, grinning and extending a hand. “Aile and Kukui put in a good word for you!”

Lillie swallowed and nodded and hoped Professor Oak realized half the things the pair of them said were exaggerations and the other half lies. Or puns.

“They, um, told me a lot of good things about you too,” she replied quietly, following the invitation of the open door. The lab was… also, well, quaint. Old wooden floors painted gray to try and replicate a more modern lab, shelves of books, plenty of tables and stands with neatly stacked research memos on them.

Oak laughed.

“I would hope so! Kukui still owes me more than a few favors, I’d hope he wouldn’t take a Low Kick to my reputation!”

Lillie resisted the primal urge to groan. She decided to distract herself with one table, only a few yards in front of the back counter of computers and books and whatnot. 

On its clean white surface was a pair of Poke Balls. Professor Oak had typically given away one of two sets of starters; either Charmander, Squirtle, and Bulbasaur or Eevee and Pikachu. 

Leaning on it was a middle-aged gentleman with spiked orange-ish hair, though Lillie could see his somewhat smug smirk from here.

“Gramps owes me money,” he said, laughing and uncrossing his arms from the front of his black button-down shirt, hands planted on his loose green pants. “I told him Sammy would be late.”

“Oh hush Blue,” Oak said, dismissing his grandson’s snark with a wave. “You know how Daren can be.”

Blue shrugged and shut his eyes. “Fair. Probably takes the old man a day to get down his damn mountain.”

Lillie blinked at the reference, and heaven help her she couldn’t remember where she heard that name before. 

“It took you two to climb down your first time,” Oak chided with a chuckle, causing Blue to wince. 

Before Blue could respond, and before Oak could start up on whatever speech he was about to give Lillie, the door to the lab swung open with all of the nuclear force of an overexcited 18-year-old girl, her red eyes brimming with what Lillie assumed Aile would describe as hype.

Her brunette ponytail bounced up and down as she rushed for the table, and Lillie couldn’t help but notice they were roughly the same height. 

“Hey gramps! Hey Oak!” she said, smiling wide.

“Hey, little shit,” Blue said. Sammy spun away from him before he could mess up her hair.

“Nope!” She stuck his tongue out at him, and Lillie couldn’t help but feel the same level of energy and intensity here that Aile tended to have on her good days. “Even my old man is faster than that, and he has knee braces!”

“Yeah, because Red does everything better than me,” Blue said. He shook his head and threw his hands up.

“Oh, Red?” Lillie perked up.

The trio paused and stared at her, causing her to blush and push her pointer fingers together. “S-sorry! I was just, um, trying to figure out where I had heard the name Daren before and it just-“

Oak laughed and dismissed the nerves with a wave.

“Don’t worry about it! You’re new here!” Lillie found herself drifting towards the twin Poke Balls on the table as Oak walked towards them. “We may not be Alola level politeness, but I’d like to think we’re close enough.”

“Besides Blue!” Sammy chimed.

“I’m polite to everyone but you, you gremlin,” Blue said with a grin.

Oak chuckled and patted the table. “Anyway!” Sammy, Lillie! Over here sit your starter pokemon!” 

The two girls drifted towards the capsules, Oak stepping aside and standing by Blue. The two had almost the same smile as the girls looked at the capsules with wide eyes.

“Sweet!” Sammy shouted, causing Lillie to wince slightly. “Finally, I get one of my own!”

She turned to Lillie, red eyes meeting blue eyes for a moment.

“I mean, after Lillie.” She stuck her tongue out at Blue. “Because politeness.”

“Sure,” Blue said, amused. “That’s it.”

If Lillie heard any of that, she had moved her focus to one Poke Ball, with a white “E” labelled on the top half. She remembered Aile talking about eeveelutions; one of her main pokemon was an Umbreon, after all, who in turn had a Sylveon son that went with Aile’s own grandson.

They were gentle and friendly creatures; most lived in adoption centers or were bred for starters and gifts, but even the wild ones were docile. They mostly lived away from other Pokemon and were omnivores.

Moreover, every time Lillie saw one in a movie or show she wanted to reach out and hug it and felt infinitely sadder for a hurt Eevee than any human on screen.

She grabbed the Poke Ball, felt the dull warm metal in her hands while tuning out the stares.

Her thumb rubbed over the smooth silver button in the middle of the contraption and pressed it. The flash was immediate and bright, and in a split second a very fluffy Eevee sat on the table, brown tail swishing back and forth as she started expectantly with those irresistible big brown eyes up at Lillie.

“Looks like you’re letting your girlfriend get the Eevee,” Blue whispered.

Lillie did not miss the pained sound he made when, presumably, Sammy elbowed him in the gut.

She barely contained a squee as she scooped up the fox-like creature, her back legs dangling freely with her tail. The Eevee smiled and barked, though Lillie felt it was too harsh a word for a sound so adorable.

“Well, I suppose you have your choice,” Oak said, grinning.

“Yeah! Eevees are great!” Sammy complimented. “My old man has a Jolteon, mum Espeon. There’s like, a hundred pictures of me with both as a baby.” 

“They are very friendly,” Lillie commented, setting hers down on the counter. Eevee’s ears twitched at the conversation. “Aile’s Umbreon was always very nice.” Outside of the times he got into an argument with his Krookodile wife, Kellie, anyway. Aile claimed they didn’t really hurt each other, which was impressive given the amount of snarls and teeth.

Lillie looked up to see Sammy looking like she was about to explode with rainbows and excitement.

“Auntie Aile!!!” She shrieked. “You know her?”

“Oh, here we go,” Blue mumbled.

It explained so much.

“Um, yes?” Lillie said. Oak shook his head and laughed, as if to apologize to not warning Lillie about this beforehand.

“Yes!” She pumped her fists up. “You have to tell me all of your Auntie Aile stories!” Sammy walked up to Lillie as if she had forgotten the entire point of being in Oak’s lab to begin with. “Is it true she can form armor with her mind and fly? Did she really fist fight Yvetal?”

“Yvetal doesn’t have fists,” Blue said. “Supposedly.”

“Shut up, nerd!” Sammy yelled, a slightly less friendly one from before. “That wasn’t really a question because she _totally_ did anyway.”

Lillie blinked, mouth open to try and say something about whatever this had turned into and really wishing Sammy hadn’t immediately barraged her with so many questions.

Oak, mercifully, clapped his hands to interrupt.

“There’ll be plenty of time for questions later!” he said. He pointed an open palm towards the other Poke Ball, sitting next to the curious Eevee staring between the humans. “Sammy! It’s your turn!”

“Well, there’s only one choice left!” she said, scooping up the remaining capsule. “I guess it’s time to get my Pikachu.”

A flash startled Eevee, causing it to paw away from the Pikachu that formed on the table, yellow ears and lighting bolt tail twitching at the sudden rush of sensations. 

Sienna stuck a finger out towards her new companion, his nose twitching at her scent. He let out a cry before scampering up Sammy’s arm, perched on her shoulder as if he always belonged there.

Lillie noticed a few brown hairs sticking up from the static electricity, but she felt a light dampness nudge her wrist. She was immediately distracted by Eevee’s need for attention… 

“Right, a name.” Lillie hummed, a fist covering her mouth as she thought. She could hear Sammy come up with a name- “Sparkplug!”- which sounded vaguely familiar even past the electric-themed name.

Still, she didn’t know what to make of the Eevee, tail swishing as regarded her with anticipation. Her mind went through a list of names, random ones you could find on a baby name site to movie characters and actors, and it hit her.

“Gwen?” she asked the Eevee. She regarded the name for a moment before letting out a might cry that seemed to shake her entire body. A perfect name for an Eevee whose trainer could learn a thing or two about making friends again.

She felt the vague pang of the old days, so much simpler and less emotionally complicated, as she allowed Gwen to perch on her shoulder. Sparkplug and Gwen exchanged squeaks and cries as they greeted each other from their new seats.

“They seem to like each other,” Sammy said with an oddly normal level of energy.

“They do.”

Blue chuckled. “The pokemon or you two?”

Oak laughed. “I think both have been affected by Attract.”

Lillie pulled on the strings of her sweatshirt, her hoodie covering her face and only barely muffling her primal groan.

“Stooooooooop.”


End file.
